Chromatography is a general separation technique that uses the distribution of the molecules of interest between a stationary phase and a mobile phase for molecular separation. The stationary phase refers to a porous media and imbibed immobile solvent. Columns with associated end caps, fittings and tubing are the most common configuration, with the media packed into the tube or column. The mobile phase is pumped through the column. The sample is introduced at one end of the column, and the various components interact with the stationary phase and are adsorbed to or in the media or traverse the column at different velocities. The separated components are collected or detected at the other end of the column. Adsorbed components are released in a separate step by pumping an eluant solvent through the column. Chromatographic methods included among other methods, gel chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, hydrophobic interaction chromatography, reverse phase chromatography, affinity chromatography, immunoadsorption chromatography, lectin affinity chromatography, ion affinity chromatography and other such well-known chromatographic methods. Current “state of the art” chromatographic or adsorptive separations use bead-based, monolith or membrane media to accomplish the desired separation. These three technologies (beads, monoliths and membranes) accomplish separations via differing physical forms and therefore operate in phenomenologically different ways. A major difference between these three media is the relationship between the adsorbing surface (where adsorption of an entity to a ligand or ligands occurs) and the convective fluid flow.
Bead based media have convective flow occurring at the bead surface while most of the adsorbing surface is internal to the bead and can only be reached via diffusion. The convective fluid flow properties are determined by the bead size. Smaller beads require higher pressure to attain equivalent flow in a column. However, the equilibrium adsorbing capacity is not determined by the bead size. Therefore, the static capacity and the flow properties of the materials are not necessarily coupled or interdependent. However, because most of the capacity is accessed through diffusion, the dynamic binding capacity (capacity in a flow-through mode at a given flow rate) is coupled to the bead size and therefore to the convective flow properties of the adsorbent.
Typically in the area of chromatographic separations, polysaccharide polymers, such as agarose, are used to make gel media by thermally phase separating the polymer from an aqueous solution. This can be done because these polymers have a melting point and a gel point. To process agarose for example, the polymer must be heated above its melting temperature, which is about 92° C., and dissolved in the presence of water. At or above that temperature, the polymer melts and the molten polymer is then solvated by water to form a solution. The polymer remains soluble in water as long as the temperature is above the polymer's gel point, which is about 43° C. At and below the gel point, the polymer phase separates and becomes a hydrogel that takes on whatever shape the solution was just before gelling. Additionally, as the agarose approaches its gel point, the viscosity of the solution becomes higher and higher as the hydrogel begins to form.
Traditionally, for polysaccharide beads, such as are used in chromatography media, the heated solution is kept above its gel point and it is stirred into an immiscible, heated fluid, such as mineral or vegetable oil, to form beads. The two-phased material (beads of agarose in the immiscible fluid) is then cooled and the beads are recovered. The beads themselves are diffusionally porous and can then be used as made for size exclusion chromatography. Preferably, they are further processed by crosslinking, the addition of various capture chemistries such as affinity chemistries or ligands, positive or negative charge, hydrophobicity or the like or combinations of crosslinking and chemistries to enhance their capture capabilities.
The beads are then loaded into a chromatography column forming a bed of media through which a fluid containing the material to be captured is passed. The beads are then washed to remove unbound contaminants and then the captured material is eluted from the beads and collected.
Several problems exist with this type of media. The packing of the beads into a column is a difficult and laborious task. One needs to be sure that the column is properly packed so as to avoid channeling, bypass and blockages within the column. Packing of columns is often considered as much an art as it is a science.
The use of beads limits the depth of the media in process applications because of the pressure that must be overcome. Excess pressure may compress the beads or require expensive pressure retaining capacity for the column. Softer beads tend to compress more than rigid beads. Compression is indicated by a steep increase in pressure drop across the bed at sufficiently high flow rates. High pressure drop is due to compression of the beads and subsequent reduction of void volume in a small zone near the column outlet. The cumulative drag force of the flowing liquid through the bed causes compression. Drag force increases with higher flow rates, resulting in higher flow resistance and with bed height. One often needs to run a soft gel bead system at a slower rate in order to ensure that the pressure drop is within acceptable bounds.
As the beads are porous and the selected molecule to be captured must diffuse into the pores of the media to be captured, the speed and capacity of the system are diffusionally limited. There are two diffusional limitations, one surrounding the bead where a film of material may form and inhibit movement of the selected molecule to the surface of the bead and a second internal diffusional resistance which is determined by the size, number and length of the pores formed in the bead surface. Additionally, the permeability of the media is related to bead size (which can vary widely) as well as the media stability. Larger beads and beads with larger pores tend to have higher permeability. Beads that are not subject to or less subject to compression (by the weight of the beads above them coupled with the pressure under which the fluid flows through the bed) also tend to have greater permeability. However, at high flow rates, permeability does decrease and dynamic capacity also decreases.
An alternative has been to use membrane or monolithic adsorbers. For membrane and monolithic media, the convective flow is directly in contact with absorbing surface. Absorbing entities do not have to rely on diffusion to reach the absorbing surface. Because the convective flow is in direct contact with the absorbing surface in monolithic and membrane media, the fluid flow and absorbing capacity are coupled. For example, the surface area of a membrane decreases with increasing average pore size. Because the binding capacity is only a surface phenomenon in this design, as the pore size increases the binding capacity decreases. However, one advantage of this surface dominated binding is that the dynamic capacity is essentially the same as the equilibrium or static capacity because there is no mass transfer resistance provided by the structure of the media to absorption. Equilibrium or static capacity refers to the quantity of the target molecule that is absorbed or adsorbed after a contact time sufficient to ensure thermodynamically complete utility of absorption or adsorption sites in the media. Unfortunately, because the surface area dictates the binding capacity, there are limits to the binding capacity one can achieve for a given permeability due to the coupled flow and binding properties.
One example of a surface functionalized monolith is taught by Cerro et al., Biotechnol. Prog 2003, 19 921-927 (Use of ceramic monoliths as stationary phase in affinity chromatography), in which thin, surface-active only, agarose coatings on ceramic monoliths were created by impregnating the monolith with the traditional hot solution of agarose, followed by removal of excess hot agarose solution from the cells within the monolith using compressed air and subsequently cooling the monolith to gel the agarose coating.
One of the major problems with this coating process is that the coatings are difficult to effect on porous materials. In the article mentioned above, the agarose had to be applied in a heated state (thus requiring a substrate that is heat stable) making its application difficult to control as gelling occurred as the temperature dropped. A further problem is that only very thin coatings that have only surface activity can be created as occurs in membrane adsorbers. In part, this may be due to the method used for removing excess agarose. It may also be a function of the agarose gel point and the higher viscosity that occurs as the temperature of the agarose approaches the gel point. Moreover, the prior art process would be very difficult if not impossible with substrates having pores that are relatively small in comparison to the cell size of the monoliths of the prior art. The reason for these difficulties is that in some cases, air cannot be readily forced through certain porous materials without disrupting or otherwise damaging the porous structure, as is the case with certain fabrics or porous membranes. Therefore relatively large pored, rigid monolithic structures must be used.
WO 00/44928 suggests another approach by forming a temperature stable agarose solution through the use of high levels (8 M) of chaotropes such as urea. Agarose of this invention is imbibed into a porous support to form a continuous phase. Water is carefully added such that a gel layer forms at the interfaces between the agarose solution and the added water. The gel layer prevents migration of the agarose but allows further migration of the water and urea molecules out of the agarose solution into the added water. This process continues until the agarose solution turns into a gel within the interstices of the pores of the porous substrate.
One major problem with this prior art method is that the process by which it is made causes the pores of the substrate to be substantially blocked, severely limiting convective flow through the porous support. Additionally, the diffusional resistance is high, limiting the ability of the media to work rapidly.
What is desired is a porous adsorptive or chromatographic media having good convective and diffusional flow. More particularly, what is desired is has a porous adsorptive or chromatographic media formed of a porous substrate having a porous coating that allows for good convective flow through the porous substrate with diffusive flow within the coating itself that provides for good dynamic capacity.